1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a musical tone generating apparatus, a plucked string instrument, a performance system, an electronic musical instrument, and a musical tone generation control method that generate various musical tones according to operation of operating elements, as well as a program for implementing the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the field of electronic musical instruments has seen widespread use of electronic musical instruments equipped with a so-called performance support function which enables even beginners without knowledge of musical codes, such as MIDI (Musical Instruments Digital Interface) codes, or without experience in practicing an acoustic musical instrument, to play the electronic musical instrument with ease.
A description will be given of the performance support function, taking an automatic piano as an example. The automatic piano has a plurality of light-emitting elements arranged at respective locations corresponding to the keys thereof, and ones of the light-emitting elements corresponding to keys to be depressed are lit in accordance with the progress of performance of a piece of music. The player sequentially depresses keys corresponding to light-emitting elements lit which are sequentially and selectively lit. This causes musical tones corresponding to the depressed keys to be output through a loudspeaker or the like. Thus, the performance of the piece of music is given using the automatic piano.
By utilizing the performance support function described above, even inexperienced beginners or like players can play a musical instrument equipped with the function to some extent. However, such players are apt to play the musical instrument by gazing at the light-emitting elements for ones sequentially lit, in order not to depress wrong keys, and therefore have difficulty in playing in proper rhythm. This prevents the players from achieving satisfactory performance. In other words, even if the performance support function is utilized, the inexperienced players cannot play satisfactorily unless they practice repeatedly.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a musical tone generating apparatus, a plucked string instrument, a performance system, and an electronic musical instrument, a musical tone generation control method which enable beginners inexperienced in musical performance and like players to play a musical instrument without practicing repeatedly, as well as a program for implementing the method.
To attain the above object, in a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical tone generating apparatus comprising a plurality of operating elements to which a plurality of musical tones are assigned, respectively, a musical tone-generating device that generates the musical tones, in response to operations of the operating elements to which the musical tones are assigned, respectively, and a mute device that mutes ones of the musical tones assigned ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated.
With the above arrangement according to the first aspect of the present invention, the mute device mutes ones of the musical tones assigned to ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated. Therefore, even if the player operates ones of the operating elements which are to be operated and at the same time accidentally operates ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated, musical tones assigned to the ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated are not sounded. This enables even beginners quite inexperienced in performance of pieces of music to play properly, which makes it possible to solve the problem that players incapable of playing a musical instrument as intended are fed up with playing the instrument to give up playing the same.
Preferably, the musical tone generating apparatus according to the first aspect further comprises a notification device that notifies ones of the operating elements which are to be operated, and the mute device mutes ones of the musical tones assigned to other ones of the operating elements than the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated, notified by the notification device.
With the above preferable arrangement, the notification device notifies the player of ones of the operating elements which are to be operated. This enables the player to recognize the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated according to information notified by the notification device (e.g. numbers indicative of the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated), thereby making it possible to solve the problem that the player operates the ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated.
More preferably, the notification device notifies the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated and timing of operations thereof in accordance with progress of performance of a piece of music, and the mute device mutes the ones of the musical tones assigned to the other ones of the operating elements than the of the operating elements which are to be operated, notified by the notification device, over a predetermined time period.
With the above more preferable arrangement, the notification device notifies the player of the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated and timing of operations thereof in accordance with the progress of performance of a piece of music. This enables the player to recognize both the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated and the timing of operations thereof, thereby making it possible for the player to play pieces of music accurately in rhythm.
To attain the above object, in a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a plucked string instrument comprising a musical tone-generating device including a plurality of strings, the musical tone-generating device generating musical tones corresponding to ones of the strings which are operated, respectively, and a mute device that mutes ones of the musical tones corresponding to ones of the strings which are not to be plucked.
Preferably, the plucked string instrument further comprises a notification device that notifies ones of the strings which are to be plucked, and the mute device mutes ones of the musical tones corresponding to other ones of the strings than the ones of the strings which are to be plucked, notified by the notification device.
More preferably, the notification device notifies the ones of the strings which are to be plucked and timing of plucking thereof in accordance with progress of performance of a piece of music, wherein the mute device mutes ones of the musical tones corresponding to the other ones of said strings than the ones of said strings which are to be plucked, notified by said notification device, over a predetermined time period.
To attain the above object, in a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a performance system comprising a plucked string instrument including a plurality of strings, the plucked string instrument generating musical tones corresponding to ones of the strings which are operated, respectively, and a musical tone generation control apparatus that generates chord information indicative of chords to be sounded by the plucked string instrument, wherein the musical tone generation control apparatus includes a transmitter device that transmits the generated chord information to the plucked string instrument, and wherein the plucked string instrument includes a musical tone generation control device that determines ones of the strings which are to be plucked, based on the chord information received from the musical tone generation control apparatus, a notification device that notifies the determined ones of the strings which are to be plucked, and a mute device that mutes ones of the musical tones corresponding to other ones of the strings than the ones of the strings which are to be plucked, notified by the notification device.
To attain the above object, in a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided an electronic musical instrument comprising a plurality of operating elements to which a plurality of musical tones are assigned, respectively, a plurality of detector devices provided in association with the operating elements, respectively, for detecting respective operative states of the operating elements, a musical tone-generating device that generates the musical tones assigned to the operating elements, according the detected operative states of the operating elements, and a control device that controls detecting operations of the detector devices, wherein the control device invalidates detecting operations of ones of the detector devices which correspond to ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated.
To attain the above object, in a fifth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a musical tone generation control method of controlling a musical tone generating apparatus including a plurality of operating elements to which a plurality of musical tones are assigned, respectively, and a musical tone-generating device that generates the musical tones, in response to operations of the operating elements to which the musical tones are assigned, respectively, comprising the step of, muting ones of the musical tones assigned to ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated, when the ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated are operated.
Preferably, the musical tone generation control method further comprises the step of notifying ones of the operating elements which are to be operated and the muting step includes muting ones of the musical tones assigned to other ones of the operating elements than the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated, notified by the notification device.
To attain the above object, in a sixth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a program for causing a computer to execute the musical tone generation control method of controlling a musical tone generating apparatus including a plurality of operating elements to which a plurality of musical tones are assigned, respectively, and a musical tone-generating device that generates the musical tones, in response to operations of the operating elements to which the musical tones are assigned, respectively, the musical tone generation control method comprising the step of, muting ones of the musical tones assigned to ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated, when the ones of the operating elements which are not to be operated are operated.
Preferably, the musical tone generation control further comprises the step of notifying ones of the operating elements which are to be operated and the muting step includes muting ones of the musical tones assigned to other ones of the operating elements than the ones of the operating elements which are to be operated, notified by the notification device.
The above and other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.